Google’s new “Talk to a Live Representative” feature is aptly named. It does indeed aim to help you talk to a live representative by dealing with automated call screens on your behalf — no more wading through endless menus or screaming “REPRESENTATIVE!” until you hear a human voice on the other end. Here’s how it works: When searching for a participating business on Google, you’ll see the new “Talk to a Live Representative” card, explaining how Google will call the business for you and wait until there’s a live rep to help you out. You can hit the REQUEST A CALL button, then fill out a short questionnaire about the reason for your call. Let’s say you need to call United Airlines. You can see from the search page that the wait time is typically 50-60 minutes. You can then choose from the following reasons for your call:
- • Update an existing booking
- • Luggage issue
- • Cancelled flight
- • Other issue
- • Missed my flight
- • Delayed flight
You then provide your telephone number and hit REQUEST THE CALL. You can go about your business and when there’s a live representative ready to help with your issue, Google will call you back. According to Google, these are the businesses participating in Talk To a Live Representative:
- • Airlines: Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines
- • Telecommunications: Assurance Wireless, Boost Mobile, Charter Communications, Cricket Wireless, Samsung
- • Retail: Best Buy, Costco, Gamestop, The Home Depot, Walmart
- • Services: ADT, DHL, Fedex, Grubhub, Instacart, Securus Technologies, Stubhub, UPS, Waste Management, Zelle
- • Insurance: Esurance, State Farm
